824.51/225: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Minister in Bolivia (Cottrell)

25. At the request of the Equitable Trust Company of New York you will please immediately inform President Saavedra, unless you find that the facts are incorrectly reported, that the Company has been informed that the Bolivian Senate has passed a law declaring free from lien of Trust Contract of May 31, 1922, the Potosi Sucre Railroad and certain other revenues which were pledged under Sections 2 and 4 of Article 4 of said contract. You may state to the President that the Equitable Trust Company as trustee and representative of the bondholders believes it its duty to protest vigorously against passage of any law which amounts to an arbitrary confiscation of rights granted by the Bolivian Government to the bondholders by the express terms of the Trust Contract.

Unless you receive satisfactory assurances from the President that such a law will not be enacted you may in a formal note present the views and the protest of the Equitable Trust Company as set forth above. Report results by cable.

Hughes